Militia

Like another reviewer I also saw this late at night with nothing better to do. ( I should have looked some more) I would like to add some more details to the rip-offs of scennes. Of course everyone noticed the T2 scene, but when they left the building in the SWAT van you could actually see a large man with sunglasses driving. Also at the end when they blew up Monte's House (Stacey Keach) the explosion was from the drug kingpin's house in Clear and Present Danger. 1 out of 10 stars...

Man, it kills me to see the direct-to-video fare that Jennifer Beals has been starring in recently. This predictable grade-C flick is passable only because it rarely takes itself too seriously. Jim Wynorski is the master of camp mediocrity, and so we see Fredric Forrest spoof his "terrorist looney-toon" persona that was hysterical but chilling in Falling Down, and Stacy Keach and Dean Cain try their hardest to not let us know they'd rather be anywhere else than on the set of this movie. That brings us to Jennifer. Why, oh why, is this gorgeous actress with passable chops whiling away her time in trifle like this and Turbulence 2 (or was it 3?).

Anyway, I watched it all the way through and if you ask me next week about "Militia" I promise you I won't remember ever having seen it. In the meantime, Corkymeter rates Militia 2 (out of 5) stars. (Yes, it rates higher than "Woo" because it knows it's piffle). Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer...

Dean Cain stars as an ATF agent who teams up with a formerly paroled racist and ex-militia mad man Frederic Forrest (How does one go from Apoclypse Now to this?) who take down a plan to assassinate the president (or some high profile official) with a missile (not sure if it's nuclear because these generic flicks run together for me) and Jennifer Beals as Dean Cain's back up leads an all out assault against the leader of the militia (Another talented actor, Stacy Keach!) Actually I was puzzled as to whether these militia men were white supremacists or if they were just playing army, one thing is for sure the movie is completely hopeless. How bad is Militia? So bad it rips off stock footage from Terminator 2 (!), American Ninja 2 (!!) and Delta Force 2 (!!!) and somehow manages to be a disgrace to all three films. Militia is along the lines of borrowed action and the lengths they go to disguise the stock footage as their own action is truly hysterical. Indeed had they put as much attention in concealing their stock footage, into making a good movie, this movie still would've sucked. All in all a terrible movie.

* Out of 4-(Bad)

I gave this film a 4 only because my favorite Superman actor, Dean Cain, was in it. The acting isn't that bad but everything else is, the premise, the plot, the pace, the predictability, etc. All movies require some suspension of disbelief, but there were too many things going on here to seem believable. In fact everything seemed contrived. My nagging question the whole time I was watching this was "Who financed this mess?" Was it some venture capitalist with nothing better to do with his money? Was it friends of Stacy Keach, or Jennifer Beal, or Dean Cain? Was it the Writer's Guild trying to help some unemployed members? How could decent actors get sucked into a film like this? This whole film seemed more like a second rate cop show from the 60s than a movie from this millennium. Don't waste your time unless you are a die-hard John Beck (Deputy Director Anderson) fan.

This TV-movie premiered locally on HBO last Friday night(August 4). I was favorably impressed with it.

Frederic Forrest(played mystery author Dashiell Hammett in the Zoeotrope film "Hammett" with finesse and style) played an imprisoned militia and right-wing fanatic. Dean Cain(also of the "Superman" TV series), played an ATF agent who had captured him. Stacey Keach played a malevolent and reckless militia movement leader with chilling authority.

In today's "politically correct" climate, it would have been easy to portray all of the militia-men as morons or thugs. HBO's production, however, deftly distinguished between degrees of fanaticism and various types of men. The result was more dramatic, more thoughtful and more optimistic than a standard "PC" piece of **** would have been.

In the wake of its errors at Ruby Ridge and Waco, the ATF and the FBI have already taken to heart the implicit message of this fine film--even paranoids want and deserve their "day in court".